My Second Summer Flick

So my other is out hiking today and I decided to take in another movie. I threatened to see Wanted and will go it alone if I think he's going to drag his feet around long enough for me to miss it. Instead, though, I opted to see The Happening. 

In spite of my opinion about Lady in the Water and the things that I have heard about The Happening, I had some expectations. It met just about none of them. I mean c'mon! What's up with M. Night Shyamalan? This was his first rated R flick. I thought he'd learned his lesson from Lady. I expected a vast improvement. Nope.

It had it's moments, I will give it that. I love Mark Whalberg but was really not digging the whole confused and earnest act that he had throughout the whole film. His voice was about an octave higher than it usually is and I think that was because he was supposed to be more sensitive and understanding in this movie. Frankly he came across as a wuss. 

Zooey Deschanel is always fun. I like her a lot, but they tried to add this mystery to her character that really didn't work well with the rest of the tone of the movie. If you've seen it, then you know. I won't explain it and ruin it for anyone else who may opt to see the movie, but it's really predictable and not a big deal.

The message in the movie, well I actually didn't mind. I think he could have kept all of the shocking scenes, the message, the creepy people, and just tweaked the dialogue and the delivery and it would have been a way better movie. 

Overall, The Happening was eh.

In DVD news, however, last night I watched The Signal. I loved it! It was fantastic! Highly recommended. Not at all what I expected. I'm sure The Signal is down in horror movie lore somewhere thanks to the incident that occurred during a screening in Cali earlier this year. Yeah, didn't really see anything in the movie that would prompt me to stab fellow watchers. Hm. Anyway, it's gory and has a few jump out of your seat moments as well as a few hysterical moments (New Year's Eve party anyone?), good flick!